Adhesive agents, paints and adhesive compositions made of vinyl ester-based resin (urethane (meth)acrylate), epoxy (meth)acrylate, polyester (meth)acrylate), a reactive diluent and a curing agent have been and are widely utilized in various fields including packaging materials, display materials such as label materials, electronic parts, precision equipments and building materials. In recent years, thermosetting type compositions under consideration have been employed with an aim of increasing the manufacturing speed and productivity improvement of manufacturing processes. More recently, however, they have been replaced to a large extent by liquid curable adhesive agents, paints and adhesive compositions of active energy-line curable types such as UV rays and electron beam curable types. Thus, the field of utilization expands and the demand for higher performance products is intensified. In other words, the demand for higher performance liquid curable adhesive agents, paints and adhesive compositions of active energy-line curable types have been and being intensified.
Patent Document 1 listed below discloses an adhesive agent comprising a specific epoxy compound, urethane (meth)acrylate, a reactive diluent, a specific long-chain alkyl (meth)acrylate and a photopolymerization initiator but it is not satisfactory in terms of adhesion property relative to a layer of soft or hard vinyl chloride resin; polystyrene; polycarbonate; glass; aluminum; steel plate; polyolefin resin modified by a polar group-containing compound or copolymer of olefin and a polar group-containing compound; magnesium; acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer; polyester-based resin; or acryl-based resin and also in terms of well-balanced properties of transparency, surface smoothness, flexibility and shock resistance.
Patent Document 2 listed below discloses a UV curable type functional paint and an adhesive composition that are realized by using hydroxy methacrylate as monomer for epoxy acrylate-based oligomer and excellent in terms of thick film forming when compounded with silica. However such a paint and an adhesive composition do not provide a satisfactory adhesion relative to a layer of glass, polycarbonate, acryl-based resin, polyester-based resin, hard vinyl chloride resin, soft vinyl chloride resin or styrene-based resin. When such a paint and an adhesive composition is compounded with one or more functional materials such as an IR absorbing material, a UV absorbing material, an antistatic material and/or an electromagnetic shielding material, the cured paint and the cured adhesive composition are far from satisfactory in terms of showing the expected functionality. Additionally, they also are not satisfactory in terms of well-balanced properties of water resistance, abrasive resistance, transparency, surface smoothness, flexibility and shock resistance.
Dirt such as sweat or fingerprints of the user and airborne foreign objects can easily adhere to the surface of the image display unit such as a mobile phone. Particularly, dirt such as fingerprints gives rise to not only a filthy feeling but also a problem of reducing the contrast of the image being displayed on the display screen of the unit.
Techniques of bonding a film to the display screen of an image display apparatus by means of an adhesive agent are known (see, for example, Patent Document 3 listed below). With such a technique, if the film on the display screen of the image display unit of a mobile phone becomes dirty, the mobile phone may remain usable simply by replacing the film with a new one, although the use of such a film is practically unfeasible because the used film becomes a waste and the film in use can be separated from the display screen along the periphery and reduce the contrast of the image being displayed on the display screen of the unit. Techniques of arranging a cover on a mobile phone main body to protect the display screen are also known (see, for example, Patent Document 4). With this techniques, while the image display section of the mobile phone does not become dirty so long as the mobile phone is not used, dirt such as fingerprints of the user can adhere to it once the mobile phone is operated and additionally, there is a problem that the mobile phone is subjected to restrictions in terms of design and appearance.
Techniques of arranging an antifouling layer on the image display screen are also known. Vacuum deposition that is a sort of physical vacuum deposition (PVD) is employed to form such an antifouling layer. With a vacuum deposition process, the solid or granular target filled in the target container arranged in vacuum of not higher than about 10−4 Pa in a vacuum deposition apparatus is heated to evaporate and the generated vapor is made to deposit on the surface of a substrate arranged opposite to the target and held to a predetermined temperature level to form a thin film on it. With a vacuum deposition process, a highly-pure thin film can be formed at a high film forming rate in a high degree of vacuum without changing the structure of the polymer that becomes a thin film at the time of deposition. Heating techniques are being popularly employed to evaporate the target and the heating techniques that can be used for vacuum deposition include resistance heating, electron beam method and laser method (laser ablation). A technique of forming a coat film of a fluorine compound on an inorganic or organic substrate to be used for a display screen such as a liquid crystal display screen by means of a vapor deposition process (see Patent Document 5 listed below) and a technique of treating a liquid crystal display screen with a fluorinated silazane compound by means of a vapor deposition process or the like (see Patent Document 6) have been disclosed.
However, because known fluorine-containing thin films do not have a satisfactory antifouling property and the formed film has a disadvantage that dirt can easily adhere to it and that it has a poor light permeability, there can arise a problem that the image being displayed on the relatively small display screen of a mobile phone is not clear as well as a problem that the fluorine-containing thin film formed by means of a vacuum deposition process is poorly durable and liable to be peeled off with time.
To date, paints and adhesive compositions including those that are epoxy-based, urethane-based, polyester-based and acryl-based have been popularly employed as paints and adhesive compositions for floor base materials of concrete, wood panel, stone and so on. They can provide floor base materials with design, solvent resistance, chemical resistance and a good appearance. For example, Patent Document 7 listed below discloses a floor finishing technique of directly applying a paint and an adhesive composition containing acryllic silicon resin, a curing agent or a curing catalyst, a pigment and a solvent and having a specific steam permeability on concrete. Patent Document 8 listed below discloses a floor paint and an adhesive composition curing composition comprising a copolymer component having a main chain that is substantially formed by a vinyl-based polymer and containing a hydrolyzable silicon group and an amino group in a molecule, and a curing catalyst component.
However, currently known floor paints and adhesive compositions including the known paints and the adhesive compositions described in Patent Documents 7 and 8 are poorly adhesive relative to floor base members including floors made of concrete, resin-coated concrete floors, wooden floors and resin-coated wooden floors and not fully satisfactory in terms of well-balanced properties of water resistance, abrasion resistance, transparency, surface smoothness, flexibility and shock resistance. Additionally, known floor paints and adhesive compositions require the use of a xylene- or toluene-based solvent and are accompanied by a problem of degrading the working environment.